President-elect Donald Trump is just a week away from taking office. From the start of his campaign, he has promised big changes to the US immigration system. For both Trump's advisers and members of Congress, the H-1B visa program, which allows many foreign workers to fill technology jobs, is a particular focus.

One major change to that system is already under discussion: making it harder for companies to use H-1B workers to replace Americans by simply giving the foreign workers a raise. The "Protect and Grow American Jobs Act," introduced last week by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif. and Scott Peters, D-Calif., would significantly raise the wages of workers who get H-1B visas. If the bill becomes law, the minimum wage paid to H-1B workers would rise to at least $100,000 annually, and be adjusted it for inflation. Right now, the minimum is $60,000.

The sponsors say that would go a long way toward fixing some of the abuses of the H-1B program, which critics say is currently used to simply replace American workers with cheaper, foreign workers. In 2013, the top nine companies acquiring H-1B visas were technology outsourcing firms, according to an analysis by a critic of the H-1B program. (The 10th is Microsoft.) The thinking goes that if minimum H-1B salaries are brought closer to what high-skilled tech employment really pays, the economic incentive to use it as a worker-replacement program will drop off...

I recommend that everyone call your Congressmen and Senators - $100k minimum is too low. I know the market and I know roughly what many H1bs at my employer are being paid. As the H1bs get green cards and conspire to take control of organizations, they still show marked preference for their own kind... $125k will definitely stop that.

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Raj

January 15. 2017 12:56

H1B, L1 visas and EB1C, all three are full of frauds, ban third party placement. This will cut down on lies and cheating, South Indians have enjoyed party for too long without doing any work. There should be some limit to loot.

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Drifter

January 16. 2017 01:29

Finally. I can't get enough of reading the Indians crying about protectionism and how bad this is going to be. They've had it coming for a LONG time. They are in real trouble because all they do is low level temp work, they can't innovate. Oh how I remember those smug slumdogs on Dice that believed they were somehow superior and everyone in the US needed to update their skills LOL! Wow this is truly enjoyable! Pack your bags and sell all your crap you bought expecting to stay. You're going home and now we don't have to deal with you and your cultural non conformity. Get out.

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Bobinator

January 16. 2017 02:46

3 Things need to happen here.

First, If someone physically works in India, but is consistently doing work in the states remotely such that they could be considered an employee of a US firm, then that needs to run afoul of human trafficking laws. Meaning managers in the states go to jail. We've played the game of offshoring call centers, we've discovered the foreigners will use their ability to place international calls to mess with us. Enough. You traffic labor into the states, go to jail.

Second, we need to reform work visa's. Pay rates need to be pegged to 90% of higher of the market in which they are going to work. After a year they have the ability to get a green card. No more trekking thousands of people from Mexico into the US to pick crops them shipping them back either.

Finally, we need to slap an export tarriff (not a huge one) on any capital leaving the United States and make the data of where funds are being transferred public. Half the reason they come here is to loot companies. If corporations noticed there's a lot of foreigners on their payroll and lots of money leaving the country, time to do an epic firing.

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patriot

January 16. 2017 05:03

I agree. Raise the minimum cap to 200k per H1b salary and charge 100k per visa cost.

That will solve the H1b issue right away. Of course, it will not stop global outsourcing to India and China.

Where I work now, 90% of the team is based in INDIA. It really sucks too because the manager is a racist foreigner.

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Mr. X

January 16. 2017 08:06

2 F1 visa diploma mills uncovered in california.
Slumdogs turned back at airport.
The amazing thing though, is that US authorites have known about these 2 bogus colleges for about 2 years and nothing has been done about it.
In one of the articles bellow it is claimed that these colleges are being scrutinized for the first time because of the Paris attacks, not because of the visa fraud, cause the politicians couldn't care less. They want cheap labor.
Don't forget about the F1 visa loophole. There is a quota of H1B visas for F1 holders. Do you expect companies to pay $100k salaries to the iliterate programmers coming out of these visa mills? That will never happen.

Right now any of the thousands of tiny India Inc bodyshops bring in millions of slumdogs and use them like slaves to bill up their income and pay the workers nothing. There is zero enforcement of these India Inc. bodyshops so nothing is ever done. Is DHS or ICE or USCIS going to visit every single shop and every single "consultant" and make sure they are all being paid $100K each? Does the govt have the resources to do that nation wide?

Given how scheming and crafty slumdogs are, they will all find a way around the requirement, and then use the higher pay to loot US even more!

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James

January 16. 2017 19:18

Since the atreaty on Open Skies which Condelizza Rice signed in 2004, Non-Resident Indians are allowed to take up to $50K in CASH out of the US on any internatiinal flight leaving the US - FIVE times the limit allowed by US citizens in flights.

Nin-resident Indians loot out $65 BILLION a year in remittances out of the US alone. Almost as much loot as Mexicans. Since many of the companies using H-1B are themselves India Inc. bodyshops, $100K will not deter them. They will just raise their billing rates by $40/hr and pass the cost on to the client. The looting will continue, US will continue to get robbed, and the Indian Mafia will continue to hold control of IT work in the US.

The other poster was correct - 3rd party placement must be BANNED totally. That would force every India Inc. conshop out of business and force the large 1st party companies to comply.

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Slumdoggie

January 17. 2017 08:36

It will never pass.
Trump loves Hindus. Trump loves India.
End of the discussion.

There's a very simple way to solve climate change, immigration, and over-population all at the same time.

Drop the bomb.

"You don't have the heart to do that".

Pew research is showing via marriage rate research (child-free men over 45 specifically) newborn males in the US have a 1 in 2 shot of procreating by the time they turn 45. This is not because having kids is being pushed out to later in life, it's because they are simply choosing not to father children.

You're going to convince 80-120 million angry men, primarily whites, who will never have kids, have armaments out the wazoo, and have a substantial amount of political and social power, who have every reason to blame China, India, and the compromise of their government by those countries, that retaliating through carpet nuking is somehow morally reprehensible?

I'm hoping Trump will bring some reasonable compromise that's best for all to the party. But don't think for a second anyone who's done business in the US doesn't know the china men and Indians are bastards and it's better never to get in bed with them. You have a well-earned reputation and the stereotypes and racism are coming back with a vengeance.

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AnotherPatriot

January 20. 2017 04:44

You nailed it, Patriot. My feelings exactly.

Sick of working with illiterate, unskilled drones who have almost no creative problem solving ability. Why is it the problem-solving breakthrough ideas on projects never come from Indians? Why do the ideas always come from whites? Yet Indians believe that they are somehow little gods and goddesses.

Yes Indians, get out. We are sick of working with lazy conniving cobras.

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AnotherPatriot

January 20. 2017 05:06

Drifter, you are right. I recall Indians, who are English-illiterate, but who believed NASSCOM's BS public relations campaign rhetoric. They were on Dice saying they were superior and Americans need to retrain in new technologies. This while Indians were learning COBOL so they could take the mainframe jobs. The audacity. The nerve. It's just astonishing.

James, yes, they are born con artists and will try to figure out a way to slither their way around anything Trump tries to do.

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Raj

January 20. 2017 12:47

IndianAmerican,

Don't be so sure since Trump is now head, looks like he loves America and its citizen. Moreover what do you think, South Indians will keep charging $150 from American clients for next 100 years without doing any work. That may not happen. I agree Indian companies are looting US for last 15 years and this trend will continue, unless third party placements are banned, but still perhaps things will change little bit, at-least Indians with grocery stores won't file H1Bs to loot Americans. Although US seems only country where looting is so easy.

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James

January 20. 2017 18:08

It's pretty amazing that Indians think they are little gods and godesses when their country is hands down the most filth ridden hellhole ever in the face of the earth. It's some kind of mega delusional compensation mechanism whereby they have to tell themselves they are the best so they don't have to face reality. And nuke carpet bombing is inevitable since US only has 160 million jobs and 3 billion people overseas all want them. Only solution is to wipe the 3rd world out because it is so unproductive. The US simply cannot accept billions of non-job-creators.

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James

January 21. 2017 11:52

There are only 160 million jobs in the US. If 3 billion people think they are going to come to the USA, they are delusional. Ain't gonna happen.

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Jimmy Legaro

January 21. 2017 16:54

To summarize:

1. No 3rd party H1-B placements
2. No H1-B replacement of American jobs, period.
3. H1-B salaries to be set at highest regional salary for skilled IT workers
4. All offhoring to India to be taxed at 100 percent (that is the Indian tax on all imported goods. We will do the same).
5. Minimum educational requirement Masters in Computer Science from selected verifiable Universities.
6. No renewal of visa after three years. Must return to India and re-apply.
7. $10,000 dollar application fee for each H1-B paid by sponsering American Company.
8. No automatic work visa for spouse.
9. Severe limits on OPT work program visas.
10. Finally limit H1-B visas to less than half of the current 85K per year.

Finally Trump should initiate massive computer science and engineering education programs for American citizens. We don't need the mass of foreigners to take our jobs. Those truly gifted foreigners may come here to work on 'O' visa, that is those with exceptional intelligence and talent. There is no limit on 'O' visas.

It's time as Trump says to put Americans first. In India where I have lived for fifteen years you do not see ANY Americans doing I.T. work. None. You do see Americans coming here to work on or oversee projects that the Indians are working on. No Americans here though.

If India imported 85K American I.T. workers the country would riot and most likely kill the foreigners. No kidding. That is life here.

It's time we started to fight for our livlihoods, don't listen to the Indian scabs who gibber on about the best and brightest etc. It's just a lie. India is a kleptocracy nightmare. Nevermind what Modi tried to do with demonitization. It won't work. It's still pay bribe and wait. Pay more bribe and wait some more.

Time to chew bubble gum, kick ass, and take names, and I'm all out of bubble gum (Roddy Piper in "They Live")

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Raj

January 22. 2017 07:54

James,
Actually there is a reason for South Indian ego and rudeness, this "I am king and queen mentality", recently a friend of mine asked quote from Indian company in Hyderabad, well they asked $10,000 for just 20 hrs of work and tried to lie all the way to get it, fortunately for my friend I stepped in and stopped rip off and will do it myself for him out of courtesy, it is not even 20 hrs work, if someone knows the job. See it all is fault of US CEOs who perhaps out of delusion or some kind of fear succumbed and allowed this free loot in last 18 years. Now South Indians and even other Indians to an extent have tasted blood, they want to open mouth and get money, it is there habit, well they never focus or own delivery. Market is bearing there tantrums and till market bears it, this will continue.

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indianamerican

January 23. 2017 00:10

You white americans cannot even control your negros. Nor can you control the muslims or mexicans.
That's why you need us indians. Don't like us? You are free to speak spanish, go to mosque, and live in a negro ghetto.

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patriot

January 23. 2017 03:23

My hope is that a war breaks out between China, India and Pakistan and they nuke each other to oblivion. That would solve the labor and immigration problem overnight. However, Mexico has similar behavior and Mexicans can be just as racist against whites as Indians.

For that, invade Mexico and kick out the corrupt government.

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Taxidriver

January 23. 2017 07:33

The 100k approach won't change anything. If anything, it will ensure that India has a monopoly on tech jobs. Here's why I say that: Even now, most H-1b workers from India operate under TWO contracts. One contract is the one with the U.S. employer. The other is with their "sponsor" in India. All that has to happen is for that second contract to be modified such that the Indian worker sent to the U.S. must remunerate half his pay to the sponsoring company in India. As it is now, many of the contracts already ask for 25 percent. The only thing that would change is the amount. It would still be just as good a deal for the Indian worker as it was before. Nothing will change, including the amount billed hourly by the body shops.

The U.S. government an do absolutely nothing about these contracts made in India with Indian nationals. Uncle Sam's jurisdiction simply does not reach there.

No, while forcing a more prevailing wage sounds good, it won't work in the long run. It's time that the American People realize that the U.S. job market belongs to them as a collective property right. That property right includes the right to collectively exclude others (i.e. non U.S. residents) from participation. The People declared and reserved that right in 1887 with the Alien Contract Labor Law. The privileged minority has been whittling away at that doctrine ever since in its unceasing pursuit of cheaper and cheaper labor.

If employers "can't find" workers to suit their needs, that's just too damn bad. The right of an employer to be as specific as he likes in listing job requirements stems not from any right to hire who he wants, but rather, his right not to hire anyone at all. The way we have allowed the courts to somehow transmute the right not to hire anyone at all into the right to abridge the property rights of the people, aside from being an unsupportable leap of logic, is nothing short of deplorable.

The only solution I can see is for someone to educate the people about the concept of their collective property right in the U.S. labor market, and to see, understand, and exercise their right to exclude. The same goes for so-called "free trade."

TD

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Taxidriver

January 23. 2017 09:10

Oh and one other thing.... Why not remove all indentureship from the H-1b? If an H-1b worker wants to quit or switch employers, he should be allowed to, and have up to 6 months to find another job before losing status. That way, the market might still have some influence, at least for those H-1b workers who are NOT under a foreign contract.

This would make the H-1b visa a lot more attractive to Europeans, and it would no longer be worthy of the title the "hostage" visa.

TD

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Drifter

January 23. 2017 10:37

Oh boy is it enjoyable watching the brownies dance in the Indian press! They are absolutely panicked now that the water is visibly rising and the ship is beginning to list. Half of them are carrying on about rhetoric and protectionism and the other half are convinced the US is going to fail without them. I'm off to grab some more popcorn...

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patriot

January 24. 2017 04:52

Hopefully once Trump ends NAFTA/TPP then he can eliminate the H1b visa fraud program and similar visa programs of their ilk. Charge 5 million per visa and penalize companies that offshore to India and China. That will solve issues quickly. The Indiots can scream all they want they offer nothing and are corrupt parasites. India has never innovated neither has China. They just lie, cheat and steal.

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James

January 26. 2017 15:43

ENFORCEMENT is coming your way slumdogs. And that means no more H-1B and you are all going home! TOO BAD FOR YOU.

Well, the axe is about to fall. Trump just cleared the way for 3000 more DHS and ICE agents. Pest control is on the way. At the rate that Trump is issuing executive orders, I'd expect to hear something about the visa problem in 2 or 3 weeks, if not sooner. This will be good for Indian airlines, they'll have to increase their flights back home. Rumors are already starting about mass layoffs. Get packed and leave now instead of getting caught up in the rush. And there's more jobs at home now before they're all taken.

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Slumdoggie

January 28. 2017 12:06

People like James will become extinct. No need to worry about this inbred, trigger happy, violent, vicious, criminal minded crackers who have looted color people since last 2000 years.
1 billion chinks and slumdoggies will populate usa and avenge the injustice done to their great ancestors.

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Uscitizen

January 29. 2017 22:53

Or..You lazy entitled fuckers can get cracking on the latest technologies that modern companies need and compete like the rest of us. Knowing ASP.fuck and and some obscure ancient Sony API to draw some lines and circles won't cut it.

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indianamerican

January 30. 2017 12:39

Look at what happens when Trump wants to control immigration from a few Muslim countries. The whole left in America goes berserk and protests, government in crisis.

See? You white people are completely divided. You are a "divided and conquered" people just like you did to the rest of the world in the past.

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patriot

January 30. 2017 23:57

Once Trump kicks out all the slumdog H1b parasites then we can make America great again and put Americans back to work.

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Indian_American

February 1. 2017 00:57

I am in Indian American working on the IT industry and I can attest to the amount of abuse of the H1B visas. As a hiring manager I toss away Indian resumes because I know most of them are fake, especially those with South Indian sounding names. We learnt the lesson the hard way after hiring a contractor (Indian) through a third party. She performed very well in the interview but a different person showed up to work the next day. I hear they do proxy interview for each other and its a paid service. This is how ridiculous the system has gotten.

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Drifter

February 1. 2017 01:11

Wow.. That happened sooner than expected. The bill is now in the House and the bodyshop stocks are crashing. Simply tremendous. Meanwhile, Indians are flocking to pray at the 'visa temple'. Bizarre.
money.cnn.com/.../

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Homeless in Detroit

February 1. 2017 12:21

Re: Patriot: According to the Indians' own creed, they are so gifted that they will thrive in India and India will become a technological paradise. Sending them back home will be a good thing to do for them since they will no longer be around "dumb" Americans, like the type, you know, who invented "dumb" things like light bulbs and nuclear energy and the Internet. India visa worker, welcome back home, your country needs you!

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